( Hogwarts – Headmistress' Office )
Discreetly watching as young Mr. Malfoy entered her new office, the previous headmaster and headmistress' portraits silently watched as the smug lad confidently walked into her office with a swagger, a swagger which matched his murderous father's to a T.
A small part of her was actually looking forward to crushing young Draco's belief in his own self-importance and entitlement, and finally put the troublesome Slytherin in his place. Her thoughts were derailed when the silver candy bowl on her desk once again caught her attention.
That was one very annoying feature of her new desk, specifically the silver candy bowl left behind by her predecessor Albus. The simple silver bowl was a constant reminder of the former headmaster's reign, one that kept silently reminding her of the massive shoes she was trying to fill as the school's new headmistress, which also kept making her think that she wasn't good enough for the prestigious position despite Filius' frequent reassurances and her many years running the school behind the scenes.
Unsurprisingly, she had attempted to remove the offending piece of junk, in fact as soon as she could get away with it, only to find that it was stubbornly stuck to the wooden desk with an unknown, but very powerful sticking charm that had resisted all her attempts to dispel. Once her best efforts to remove the bowl had failed, she had attempted to simply remove the desk entirely and replace it with her own desk from her old office, only for the head teachers' portraits to erupt into loud protests at the action.
It turned out that the desk had been there since the school was first founded, and each head teacher had used the same desk as their own through the many centuries. Hence, she was stuck with the ancient desk and the annoying candy bowl for the time being. Rather than risking offending her predecessors and lose out on their advice and guidance, she merely grit her teeth and bore it. It was curious, though, how they weren't protesting the fact that Dumbledore had made a seemingly permanent modification to this priceless piece of the school's history.
Shifting her attention back to the meeting at hand, she spoke to the young man. "Mr. Malfoy, take a seat," she commanded while gesturing to the chair in front of her desk, as Severus hovered to one side of her office.
Despite being summoned to her new office, the young Slytherin still sported that arrogant sneer, like he owned the place, regardless of the fact that he was now sitting in front of his headmistress at her command.
"Mr. Malfoy, it is my regrettable task to inform you that your father was arrested earlier this afternoon by the Ministry," she explained straight faced to the now stunned boy.
She paused for a moment to allow her words to register, his smugness starting to disappear from his features as the boy finally understood what she had said.
"I have not been officially informed of the specific charges, but I've been told that they are extremely serious and that the evidence of his guilt is overwhelming. Unfortunately, due to the extreme nature of the charges your father is being accused of, your mother has also been arrested by the aurors and is in custody as well. Therefore, for the time being at least, your godfather is your acting guardian, until it's been proven that she is innocent and had no knowledge of your father's criminal activities."
"My father? My mother?" Draco voiced weakly, clearly in a state of shock.
"Indeed, they have both been arrested," she confirmed again slower this time.
Watching the shocked lad, her maternal instincts began to surface, regardless of the fact that she strongly disliked the boy in front of her. "I would also advise you to be mindful of how you behave in the next couple of days, since the Daily Prophet has likely been informed of this matter involving your mother and father. I would imagine soon the whole school will know of this affair. Therefore I strongly advise you to keep your head down and stay out of trouble until this matter is resolved, one way or another."
Turning her attention back towards Severus, the man seemed to be rather amused for some unknown reason. This seemed awfully out of character for the man, especially considering this scandalous news involved his close friend and would undoubtedly impact his godson.
She decided that it was time to finally get to the bottom of Severus' unusual behaviour of late. "Professor Snape, please escort Mr. Malfoy back to his common room, then please return here. You and I need to have another chat," she stated evenly.
"Yes headmistress," the gloomy potions master replied, before escorting his silent godson quickly out of the office.
Turning her attention back to the large pile of paperwork resting on her desk, she was realizing more and more in the last couple of days, while actually doing this job, that she had effectively already been running the school as headmistress for the past couple of decades. Albus had merely been just signing off on her decisions and taking credit for her hard work while he played politician, rather than doing his duty as the headmaster of this school.
Severus returned almost an hour later, before taking a seat in front of her desk. "You wanted to see me headmistress?" he asked evenly.
Placing her work to one side, she began. "Yes, I wanted to discuss your recent behaviour," she stated, before giving the resident potion master a stern look. "In our meeting with young Mr. Malfoy, inexplicably, you seemed to enjoy the fact that your best friend had been imprisoned."
"He is not my best friend," the head of Slytherin replied evenly, causing her to give him a confused look which clearly commanded that she wanted him to explain that statement.
"I am not Severus Snape, Madam. I am an auror who has been officially assigned to replace Professor Snape using polyjuice potion," the man in front of her explained, as her mind was reeling at the news. "Professor Snape is currently in the protective custody of the Ministry, and I expect will be returned to the school shortly, now that this assignment is drawing to its end. You should also be aware that Mr. Potter is still alive, and is currently in hiding for his protection," he finished, leaving her in stunned silence.
Quickly, she recovered from her shocked state, before rejoicing at the news of Lily and James' son still being alive. "Did headmaster Dumbledore know of this?" she asked, realizing belatedly she that didn't even know the auror's name.
"Yes, he helped to arrange it," the fake Severus replied, as she suddenly had the alarming realization that she was merely a pawn in a much bigger political game. "Headmaster Dumbledore did not wish for Lord Malfoy to be warned of our investigation through his friend Severus." She merely sat in stunned silence as yet another realization was had about the true state of things.
Even after decades of friendship, after steadfastly and loyally fighting side-by-side during the war and working together for so many years thereafter, Dumbledore had chosen not to trust her, to let her believe the son of her two favourite students had been murdered at her beloved school, on her watch.
She needed time to think on this more and examine what was true and what was not. Too many of her core beliefs had been challenged as of late and it was leaving her so very angry at being duped for so long.
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A/N : if we get 400 power stones by the end of the week, I will release an extra chapter ;)
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